E-book
The energy of slaves [electronic resource] : oil and the new servitude / Andrew Nikiforuk.
By the winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book AwardAncient civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities. Nineteenth-century slaveholders viewed critics as hostilely as oil companies and governments now regard environmentalists. Yet the abolition movement had an invisible ally: coal and oil. As the world's most versatile workers, fossil fuels replenished slavery's ranks with combustion engines and other labor-saving tools. Since then, cheap oil has transformed politics, economics, science, agriculture, and ev.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781553659792 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 1553659791 (electronic bk.)
- Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)
- Publisher: Vancouver, BC : Greystone Books, 2012.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Description based upon print version of record. |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Prologue -- 1. The energy of slaves -- 2. Slaves to energy -- 3. The oil pioneer -- 4. The new servitude -- 5. The unsettling of agriculture -- 6. The Viagra of the species -- 7. The urban fire -- 8. The economist's delusion -- 9. Peak science -- 10. The petrostate -- 11. The surplus devolution -- 12. Oil and happiness -- 13. Japan and the fragility of the petroleum age -- Epilogue. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Energy development > History. Energy development > Moral and ethical aspects. Petroleum industry and trade > Moral and ethical aspects. Slavery. |
| Genre: | Electronic books. |
